BASEBALL: Waynesboro falls to Dallastown in District 3 quarterfinals

Friday

May 24, 2013 at 10:45 AM

By Lee Goodwin

DILLSBURG — The machine finally broke down.

All season, the Waynesboro Indians varsity baseball team has gotten it done with pitching and defense. On Thursday, the lethal combination that helped the Tribe to an unbeaten record during its last 13 games gave way to a lethal hitting attack by Dallastown.

The Wildcats peppered Waynesboro pitchers for 14 hits — seven each against starter John Barr and reliever Alex Cline — and the Indians defense committed an uncharacteristic four errors in a 7-0 District 3-AAAA quarterfinal loss at Northern High School.

The game was called before Waynesboro could bat in the bottom of the seventh after a thunderstorm rolled through at around 8:30 last night.

Despite the loss, the Indians can hang their hats on another winning season, including their first Mid-Penn Colonial Division championship since 2008. Waynesboro finished with a record of 17-4-1 and went 12-0 in the division.

"I'm proud of the kids," said Waynesboro coach Greg Chandler, who completed his 26th season as the Indians' head coach. "We accomplished a lot this year. There's a lot of precious moments in this season. They worked hard. They were good kids. They played together."

It was the final game for seniors James Bennett, Dylan Bryan, Brandon Carbaugh, Justin Freeman, Ryan Heinrich, Cole Warrenfeltz, Ben Weber and Brandon Yurek.

Dallastown, the 14th seed, will play Exeter Township on Tuesday in the semifinals. Exeter, the 15th seed, defeated Chambersburg 4-1.

The top three teams from District 3 qualify for the PIAA tournament beginning Monday, June 3.

"As a coach, that's always the toughest speech to give — when you lose the last game in the playoffs. Noone there wanted to lose. When you get that far, it's a tough scenario when you lose and there's no tomorrow."

While the Wildcats were hitting away at Waynesboro pitching, the Indians didn't exactly fare so well against Dallastown starting pitcher Tyler Butcher — even though Waynesboro was making good contact. The righthander scattered four singles and got good defense behind him en route to a complete game victory.

The difference in this game was the Tribe hit the ball where they were, the Wildcats hit the ball where they weren't.

"In baseball, you never know," Chandler said. "If some of those hits would have dropped in, it could have been different. In these games, it's a lot about momentum. We hit the ball hard, just right at them."

After two scoreless innings, Dallastown struck first in the third when Rob Catchings walked, stole second and scored on an error.

The Wildcats broke the game open with four runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth, hammering out 10 hits during the two frames.

It wasn't for lack of trying, but the Tribe couldn't buy a hit. Cole Warrenfeltz hit a couple hot potatoes, but both were fielded by shortstop Nick Sutton and resulted in outs. Catchings made two nice catches on fly balls to center field in the second inning. Second baseman Tom Golden also made two good plays on ground balls in the sixth inning to prevent Waynesboro from mounting any sort of rally.

"We were humbled a little bit," Chandler said. "For a whole month and a half, we've been perfect. In the game of baseball, especially high school baseball, to play that well for that long, it's impressive. You knew we were due for one of those nights. To their credit, they beat us."

Dallastown turned two double plays, none more significant than the fourth inning when rightfielder Tanner Forry caught a fly ball and threw it on a rope to catcher Cody Summerville ahead of Brandon Yurek, who tried to score on the play. The Wildcats also turned a double play in the fifth inning.

"There were a lot of signs that it wasn't going to be our night," Chandler said. "It just wasn't in the cards."

NOTES: Voting was conducted on the Mid-Penn Colonial Division all-star teams, and senior pitcher Dylan Bryan was named Most Valuable Player. Bryan was 10-0 this season and recorded a career high 16 strikeouts against Big Spring on May 1. . . Ben Weber, Warrenfeltz, Cline, Barr and Tim Ingram were all named to the first team, while Brandon Yurek, Clay Eberhardt and Seth Hoffman earned honorable mention. . . Bryan and Warrenfeltz are both playing in the 2013 Mid Atlantic Baseball Classic at Hagerstown's Municipal Stadium on Monday. The high school senior all-star event is comprised of players from Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Bryan, playing on the Diamond All-Star team, will play at 1 p.m. and Warrenfeltz, playing in the Elite game, will play at 4.

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